Better way to grade schools

High schools need to do a better job preparing students to be college- and career-ready. But how do we get them to do that?

One state has just come up with a solution and it could serve as a model for reform throughout the country.

California recently passed a law that reduces the weight of standardized test scores for ranking high schools. Crucial factors like graduation rates, attendance and student advancement will play a larger role in grading schools.

Since 1999, every California public school has been granted an Academic Performance Index, or API, score based almost entirely on how its students fare on standardized tests. Other states are also similarly reliant upon test scores.

These scores help determine everything about a school's future - whether it receives funding, whether parents can move their children to a better school, even whether home values rise or fall. So the pressure to get a high score is enormous.

The intention, of course, has been to hold schools accountable and to give them incentives to improve. The problem is that the system puts too much emphasis on tests that don't necessarily predict how well a student will actually do after high school. In the end, students were being prepared to succeed on tests, not to succeed beyond graduation.

When based primarily on tests, a school's API score can be an unreliable predictor of how well its students will perform in college. A 2012 study conducted by Education Sector found that one school with the relatively high API score of 778 out of 1,000 had a 91 percent graduation rate but sent just 66 percent of its students to college. A school with a score of just 698 had a graduation rate of 95 percent and sent 86 percent of its students to college.

The API's shortcoming is revealed when the scores are applied to schools with a high proportion of low-income students. According to our study, three of the five high-poverty schools with the lowest API scores were among the top five in sending graduates to college. The school with the lowest API had the highest postsecondary enrollment rate: 79 percent of its graduates went to a postsecondary institution, 5 points above the state average.

Standardized test scores provide one measure of success. Butthey are not entirely accurate in measuring whether students are ready for life after high school.

This problem has real-world consequences. Only 25 percent of students taking common college entrance exams in California are deemed college- and career-ready. And two out of every five college students must take remedial classes for basic skills. Our nation's high schools have been failing to provide tools for students .

The new law ensures that, as of 2016, test scores can count for no more than 60 percent of a school's API score, and that the state superintendent must add graduation rates and measures of college- and career-preparedness to the mix.

Students must start preparing for life beyond high school from the moment they enter a freshman classroom.If we want students to arrive at college ready for postsecondary work, we must improve our country's systems for evaluating schools. California just put forward a great model for reform. What we need now is for the rest of the country to follow.

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